After a lifetime spent channelling electricity from questionable sources, the humble household plug socket finally has something to sing about. ‘Feel Good Energy’, Nexus Studios’ latest campaign for Energie AG, directed by Johnny Kelly and with agency Studio Sonntag, transforms everyday outlets into karaoke stars, liberated by the arrival of sustainable energy. The campaign also marks the launch of Austria’s first electricity tariff designed for Gen Z (everyone up to 28) – making Energie AG the first energy provider across the German-speaking region to introduce such an offer.
To bring the sockets to life, Kelly and the Nexus Studios team crafted expressive characters from the simplest features. The positioning of two eyes or the scale of a mouth was enough to entirely change a socket’s personality. Lip-sync was achieved with meticulous 3D facial animation and tracking, allowing for comic timing and emotional nuance.
The films were shot on location to capture natural light and lived-in realism, before Nexus Studios’ team added finely tuned digital facial animation to transform the sockets into soulful performers.
Kelly explains: “I wanted the realism of a live shoot, but the control of an animated performance. Tracking 3D-animated lips onto real sockets gave us the best of both worlds. Our goal was to breathe more humanity into these sockets than we could into any actor, and if you feel like your own sockets are watching you afterwards, we’ve done our job.”
With the soulful karaoke classic “Feeling Good” at its heart, the project leaned on music and performance. Recording sessions were captured, giving animators subtle reference material to mirror the quirks of the actors.
“I like mixing high and low tech. So while our VFX team did some absolutely incredible 3D tracking and digital facial replacement, we also had, for example, lots of things puppeteered on fishing lines. The final result is, I hope, a wonky cocktail,” Johnny Kelly, Director, Nexus Studios.
_______________________________________________________________________________
nexusstudios.com
LinkedIn: Nexus Studios
Instagram: @nexusstories
Twitter: @nexusstories
Johnny Kelly
LinkedIn: Johnny Kelly
Instagram: @mrjohnnykelly
Twitter: @mrjohnnykelly